Tuesday, April 16, 2013

PULLING SOME THREADS TOGETHER: SITTING, POSTURE AND GRAVITY

I CALL ON YOU TO FIGHT
GRAVITY

This might be a bit of a
disjointed post but I wanted to pull together a few ideas that I’ve been
thinking about recently, prompted by a few things that I’ve read some of which
I’ve mentioned here. It is just a case of getting some ideas out of my head, so please do not be too hard on me for a long rambling post.

Over the life
of this blog I have looked a few times at posture and neuroplasticity – the
idea of how the brain itself can change and modify itself in response to what
you do with it and with your body.
I’ve also often pointed to the reports of the dangers of a sedentary
life. Without necessarily spinning
some grand theory I wanted to highlight a few ideas and maybe begin to plot
some connections.

MUSCLES THAT TIGHTEN,
MUSCLES THAT GET LOOSE

This is an idea that I think
I first came across from Mark Reifkind, then Paul Check and then Dan John. I think Chek got it from Janda. They talk of tonic and phasic muscles. Certain muscles tend to get
tighter with age, injury, under-use or over-use. These need to be stretched. Others tend to get weaker and they need to be strengthened.

Which ones are which?

MUSCLES
THAT GET TIGHTER WITH AGE

Stretch them

MUSCLES
THAT GET WEAKER WITH

AGE

Strengthen
them

Upper Trapezius

Pectoralis Major (Chest)

Biceps

Pectoralis Minor (deep
chest muscle)

Psoas (hip flexors)

Piriformis

Hamstrings

Calf Muscles

Rhomboids

Mid-­‐back

Triceps

Gluteus Maximus

Deep Abs

External Obliques

Deltoids

A simple way to picture
all this is of flexors and extensors.
The flexors – the muscles that bend, that pull bones together – get
tighter. All of those muscles in the
left hand column: when they get tight, flexed, you end up in a tight ball. Legs bent, toes pointed, knees to
chest, arms bent, shoulders hunched up and chest collapsed. You go foetal. The extensors are the opposite. These are the muscles take you from the
foetal to the upright. When these
are tight you are erect, arms and legs straight, shoulders back.

When we think of an old
person, we picture then with the flexors tight – they are bent over, stooped,
arms and legs bent. The youthful
person is different – they are erect, the extensors are working well.

We have a battle between
flexion and extension. Between the
foetal position, which becomes the posture of old age, and the erect posture of
the child and the athlete.

Incidentally, notice also how the foetal position is the position we adopt in fear, in response to a threat. The brave, resistant fearless position is the opposite.

It is also interesting that the muscles we need to strengthen are often those that we ignore or find boring. We need to be rowing, pressing, hingeing and squatting rather than curling and bench pressing.

GRAVITY AND THE BATTLE

What makes this
battle? Gravity.

This is where I come back
to the ideas of Philip Beech and his erectorise exercises. It is also connected to the writings of
Dr. Joan Vernikos, who notes that sitting and the
sedentary life is actually a life in which people minimise the effect of
gravity. She compares the impact
of weightlessness on astronauts and each of the negative health impacts that
are observed in them are evident to a lesser scale in those who spend a lot of
time seated.

We tend to forget about
gravity. It is always there! Forget about exercises, liftin weights
or even lifting your bodyweight.
Our bodies are under a constant pressure from gravity. Gravity is always trying to bend us over, push us down and return us
to the foetal position from which we started. It never stops.
To stand up, erect with legs straight, shoulders back and head up
requires work, effort against gravity.
It requires the extensors to work……all the time. Unless you keep working these
muscles BY SIMPLY STANDING AND
BEING ERECT they will get weaker, they will get looser. Gravity wins!

The other muscles? As you stop fighting gravity and you
collapse – ultimately into a ball….or a chair – those flexors settle at a
shorter length. If you never stand
up straight into extension, your hip flexors will never be lengthened. Your hips will always be bent. You will collapse in on your self. You become old, flexed. Weak.

WE ARE IN A FIGHT WITH
GRAVITY

As a child develops from
back, to roll, to crawl, to sit, to stand, to walk, gravity is slowly battled
and mastered. The force that held
the baby down is finally overcome until he is able to stand, the muscles
keeping the body erect.

We become
what we were meant to be – a biped.
Upright and erect in command of our bodies. And as such with healthy brains, plastic brains that develop
the connections and the maps to govern that movement. As we stand and move all of us gets healthy, even our
brains.

But as we abandon the
physicality of life, sit down and succumb to gravity that is lost. All sorts of systems in the body suffer
including the brain.

RECOGNISE THE FIGHT

We live in a world of
gravity, but we don’t notice it.
Apart from all exercise and training, concerns about exercise form or
protocol, first of all respect the basic truth that we live in a world of
gravity. This force is trying to
pull you down – literally and metaphorically. Health and simply being human depends on mastering gravity. Stand up for yourself! Stand against the world. Think of all the phrases that signify
strength and robustness – the things that you stand for, the things that you
stand against. Sitting down,
sitting it out – you collapse, gravity wins. Standing up – you assert yourself.

Anyway if nothing else….start
to think of standing as an heroic battle against gravity. Keep up the fight as long and as effectively
as you can. Sitting, slouching,
poor posture is giving up that fight. Going foetal reeks of fear. Getting erect speaks of character, fight and bravery. (I've also noted on the blog before how posture affects attitude - if you want to be confident then take a confident posture)

I know you don't want to hear anything about paleo, but hear me out. If the whole concept is that we we didn't evolve to sit around in chairs, okay, then WE DID evolve to squat.

Our ancestors did not build standing desks to slice up and skin sabertooth tigers that they just killed. They did the third-world squat (like chimps) while they relaxed and worked with their hands. They didn't stand at standing desks or walk on treadmills while working with their hands.

But just like no carbs, I'm not going to start working at a squatting desk. WORKING is the problem, not sitting. I need to figure out how to not work so much. If I could work 2 days a week and snowboard and climb 5, then I wouldn't have to worry about sitting, low-carb, oly-lifts and cross-fit-rxing-yoga-lattes, HIIT, none of that shit. Again, WORKING is the problem, not sitting.

That's all for now-- back to my Phish food and sitting desk and pile of work.

Hi I saw Ed Thomas present last year on the 3 uncommon postures and how we should train in those positions.Posture is the foundation of movement as I explain on all my coaching courses: we start from there and then move on.Children of Clay article here:http://www.energycenter.com/grav_f/inver_clay.html

The “muscles of youth” seem to make you taller. A tight butt, those external obliques, the deep abs, the deltoids, rhomboids, and triceps give off the appearance of youth. There is a great “Sex and the City,” the show not those dreadful movies, where we see the issue of “saggy butt.” So, do your presses, your one arm presses, your hills sprints, your swings and get younger.

At the same time, stretch out those muscles that are stiff. Doing bench and curls all the time leads to “the old man look.” Keep vigorous by stretching these daily.

Hey Chris - Appreciate the shout out. Those are some very big names to be mentioned alongside! Here's a thought: What if all we are doing with stretching this and strengthening that is addressing symptoms of a bigger issue? What if it's simpler than that?

Yes, it does. We've updated BB with Original Strength. But yes, it really is THAT simple. The strength gains I've made and reclaimed in the last 3 years are all a result of these simple resets (and a few regressions we teach in our workshops). I wish I could say it was more complicated than this but it's not. If people would just take the time and practice these resets on a consistent daily basis they'd be as amazed as I am. Tim's progress is even more mind-blowing.

I recently got a daily e-mail from John Wood, of bodyweightbasics.com. It is usually a little sales pitch for an old time strongman book or some cool equipment, but sometimes it's training tips, routines,etc. This days was about the get-up. Not the Turkish get up, just the get up. Lay on the floor, front or back, and stand up. Do this 50 times. Try to make each one a little different. Alternate laying on your back and front. He uses it as a finisher on his workouts. I am terribly out of shape, and I tried it.It did give me a workout. Given what you have noted the importance of being able simply rise from the floor can mean, especially in old age, I am not sure I can think of a more simple, basic and safe exercise that may provide more benefit. Just thought I might share, and who knows, if you revise Hillfitt again, maybe add it to your list of exercises.